14 Planned Disney Channel Series That Got The Axe Or A Total Makeover
BuzzFeed
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From That's So Raven to Wizards of Waverly Place, our favorite Disney Channel shows pretty much defined our childhoods. However, a lot of them actually started as a totally different show, and there were even more cool-sounding shows that never made it to air.
1.In 2005, Aly and AJ Michalka were cast in Haversham Hall, a Parent Trap–inspired show about two sisters who were separated during their childhood but reunited as roommates at their New England boarding school.
The show also featured iCarly's Mindy Sterling.
2.Wizards of Waverly Place showrunner Todd J. Greenwald wrote Aly and AJ a pilot called The Odd Cousins, which was "about two cousins, one was a sunny, bright, cheery Southern California cheerleader, and then her emo Portland, northwestern grungy cousin got into trouble and was sent to live in sunny SoCal with her cousin."
"When the Michalka sisters couldn’t be in it, Disney still wanted to do it, so they go, ‘Hey, we have this musical movie, called High School Musical, and Vanessa [Hudgens] read for it,'" Greenwald told the International Business Times.
3.In 2007, Disney filmed a pilot for a Selena Gomez–led The Suite Life of Zack and Cody spinoff called Arwin!, which followed the hotel engineer as he moved into his sister's smarthome to help her raise her three kids.
It also starred Samantha Droke, who costarred in Princess Protection Program with Selena.
4.After Lizzie McGuire ended, Selena Gomez was cast in a spinoff series as Stevie, the little sister of Lizzie's BFF Miranda.
The pilot was pitched to Disney Channel alongside Hannah Montana, which they decided to greenlight instead.
5.In 2019, Disney announced a Disney+ reboot of Lizzie McGuire, but after show creator Terri Minsky left only two episodes in, the show was doomed for cancellation.
Hilary Duff told The Jess Cagle Show, "I think they are really trying to figure out what kind of content they want living on Disney+, and that doesn't totally align with, like, where I see Lizzie right now."
6.When Keke Palmer first moved to California, she landed a pilot for Keke and Jamal, which was loosely based on her real life.
Keke shared a clip of the show — which also featured Vanessa Hudgens — on Instagram.
7.In 2014, Disney greenlit a pilot for Growing Up and Down, which starred Raini Rodriguez and Adam Irigoyen as parents who'd been transformed into teenagers again.
Noah Centineo was cast as one of their teenage kids...
...with Ceci Balagot playing the other. The siblings would have to navigate high school with their own parents as their classmates.
8.In 2016, Disney ordered Forever Boys, a supernatural pilot starring boy band Forever in Your Mind as brothers who were bitten by a vampire in 1957 and reemerged as a band after decades in hiding.
The pilot was part of a 360 deal that band members Ricky Garcia, Emery Kelly, and Liam Attridge signed with Disney.
9.The That's So Raven episode that Alyson Stoner guest-starred on ("Goin' Hollywood") was a backdoor pilot for a spinoff that competed against Hannah Montana during pilot season.
On the episode, they played Ally Parker, a child star who began attending public school.
10.In 2010, Disney began developing its first musical series, the High School Musical spinoff Madison High, which centered on students in the high school where Ms. Darbus took a new job.
The original cast included G. Hannelius, who went on to star on Dog with a Blog.
11.Originally, JONAS was supposed to be about a trio of spies living a double life as a boy band.
However, the show was reworked to center on the band of brothers "dealing with normal things like trying to take out the trash and not get hounded by fans."
12.In 2011, Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder was set to produce and star in the Disney XD show Gulliver Quinn, which followed a 28-year-old who had to enroll in seventh grade after his family spent 15 years living in a cave while making a documentary about a rare tortoise.
The show was eventually released as a TV movie featuring Liv and Maddie's Joey Bragg and Girl Meets World's Sabrina Carpenter.
13.In 2011, Disney greenlit a Maia Mitchell–led pilot for Zombies and Cheerleaders, which was about a high school zombie trying to fit in with the popular cheerleaders.
The concept was reworked into the 2018 TV movie Z-O-M-B-I-E-S, which starred Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly.
14.And finally, Dove Cameron was originally cast as Alanna in Bits and Pieces, which was supposed to be the story of a blended family told through vignettes rather than traditional episodes.
However, after the show was picked up, Dove got a call that she was actually going to be playing twins and "we'll figure it out as we go" — which led to Liv and Maddie.
Later on, the final episode of Liv and Maddie revealed that the "confessionals" the characters gave were actually for the Rooney family's reality show, Bits and Pieces.
Which canceled or reworked TV series — Disney or not — do you wish had made it to air? Let me know in the comments!
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